Reproductive performance of indoor-housed Meriones meridianus / 中国比较医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the reproductive characteristics of indoor-housed Meriones meridianus.Methods According to the data of Meriones meridianus from 1996 to 2002 in the Center for Laboratory Animal research of Xinjiang, the sexual maturity period of male and female animals, the gestation period of female animals, the litter size, weaning rate, survival rate, sex ratio per month and different fetal times were statistically analyzed.Results Sexual maturity period of male and female animals was 109.3 ±21.0 days and 106.3 ±21.7 days, and gestation period of female animals was 21.3 ±1.4 days.The litter size, weaning rate of different fetal times showed no significant difference compared between those of the first to seventh litter ( P>0.05) , and the survival rate of fourth and sixth litter were lower than that of the average offspring per litter, but the difference was no significant (P>0.05).The sex ratio of from first to sixth litter indicated no significant difference ( P>0.05 ) , and the average proportion of male and female was 1.4:1.0.During a year, the animals almost stopped to reproduce from September to November, however, the differences of litter size between the other months were statistically not significant ( P >0.05 ) , the weaning rate and survival rate per month suggested a significant difference ( P <0.05 ) between some of the months.Conclusions Compared with the background data of wild Meriones meridianus, the laboratory reproduction of Meriones meridianus show some differences, mainly, the season of breeding is shifted to December, and the number of reproduction increased by one or two litters.Our results provide useful reference for laboratory animalization of Meriones meridianus.